


By Blood

by Wisttic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 03:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13849359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wisttic/pseuds/Wisttic
Summary: Keith struggles with his realization of being half Galra, and Shiro's kindness is hard to take.Shiro has nightmares, and he doesn't want to share his fears and burdens with his team.





	By Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ashitanoyuki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashitanoyuki/gifts).



Learning that he was part evil-space-cat had been an adjustment for Keith, and for the rest of the team. He suffered through Lances suspicions and Hunks playful prods, through Pidges explosive curiosity, and even Alluras scorn. But those weren't the hard things to deal with. He'd suffered all those before.  
An absent mother and a single father working 2-3 jobs constantly had left him to mostly deal on his own when his aloof, angry nature had gotten him into trouble. He'd dealt when his teachers had glared and other kids either thought he was too cool to talk to or else in a dangerous gang. He had his methods for those, had all his walls up.  
What he wasn't prepared for was Shiro's patience.  
Ever since they returned from the Blades of Marmora’s Headquarters—ever since learning about Keiths heritage--  Shiro hadn't treated him any different.... well, that wasn't quite true- he'd been even kinder.  
They’d been friends for a while, since Shiro had taken him under his wing at the Garrison. Talking to Shiro was easier than talking to other people- but that didn’t mean it was easy in of itself. He didn’t get along with people, he always found some way to offend or push them away. Only his dad had been a constant-until mortality said he wasn’t- and even then Keith thought it was only because they were related. He and Shiro didn’t have that shared blood, so no matter how close he sometimes felt to Shiro, he knew it wouldn’t last.  
Meaning this current kindness was something Keith didn't know how to handle.  


\------

Another day, another morning Shiro was the first one up.  
"Come on everyone, you all knew we were having a training session today." Shiro said as his team dragged themselves into the ships common room, half of them yawning and with Lance outright slumped back and falling asleep.  
Shiro shook his head and sighed, remembering for the hundredth time that his teammates were teenagers. Only cadets at his alma mater and far from an age where they realized that rest was actually needed to function well.  
Shiro, on the other hand, was a trained astronaut before he was Voltrons leader. He lived and breathed by rigid schedules.  
Granted, sleeping hours were harder to stick to nowadays, but he still suspected he got more hours than the rest of the Voltron riders.  
"You have ten minutes to wake up, then we're heading out."  
Pidge groaned and Hunk gently shook Lances shoulder, startling the boy awake.  
"Whussat?!"  
Lance rubbed at his eyes and dropped his hands to his lap, blinking blearily at his teammates. His eyes stopped on Keith, who was yawning least of the group and obviously waiting for the rest of his team to pull themselves together. Lance blinked, and he still sounded half asleep when he spoke.  
"Do you Galra need less sleep than the rest of us or-?"  
Keith pursed his lips and bristled, ready to shoot something back. Shiro beat him to it.  
"Lance, cut it out."  
Lance seemed to wake up at that, looking at Shiro and hunching his shoulders like a scolded dog. Shiro still shook his head and kept his tone stern.  
"This goes for all of you. No more comments like that. If you have a question then ask Keith in private- respectfully! But I don't want any of you making any more jabs about this, or harassing him for it."  
Lance rubbed the back of his neck, Hunk looked away and started whistling, while Pidge was looking at her feet and fiddling with their fingers. None of them had been malicious about it, but it was clear that every one of them knew they'd given Keith grief over his newly found heritage in one way or another—comments or looks or asking to scan him for ‘research’.  
Shiro looked at all of them, face kept deadpan in disappointment while inwardly he remained pleased that they understood the weight of their actions- at least to some degree.  
He'd probably have to say this same sort of thing a dozen more times before it sunk in, but at least the process had been started now.  
He looked over to Keith, and the teen was staring at him, frowning hard enough to crinkle his brow. Shiro didn't know what to make of the look, nor did they really have time.  
"We're down to eight minutes. Every one start suiting up and head for your lions."  
\---------  
  
Keith spent all of training distracted, and had to rely on Red to make up for it. Lance teased him and he snarked right back. He was bothered by Lance, bothered by his own blood, bothered by Shiro's words and bothered by being bothered.  
Everyone went to the common room after training to decompress, but Keith hung back, waiting outside the doorway of it to catch Shiro’s arm, stopping him out of earshot of the others.

“… Why are you acting like everything is normal?”

Shiro didn’t look offended or scared, or even confused, he just looked at him like this was something he’d expected.  
“Because it is. Keith, I’ve known you for a long time. I’m not going to distrust you just because you found out you’re part Galra.”

Keith didn’t know if Shiro had practiced the answer or not, but it came out naturally. It made Keith grit his teeth, because it just didn’t make sense.  
"Why? I don't even trust myself right now."  
Keith looked down, eyes on their feet, voice a low mutter that Shiro could probably barely hear.  
"I've always been more violent than the rest of the crew... than anyone I was around. Now I find out its in my blood..."  
Just like Zarkon and the others that were causing such a mess. Sure, there was the Blades of Marmora that had some honor, but they seemed like an exception, not a rule. He was tainted and dangerous, and that thought just mixed with the worry that was made any time Shiro said anything about him being a leader, or any time they were at risk and needed him.  
When Shiro answered, it was soft, and Keith felt it soothe  the ripped edges of his fears.  
"Your genetics don't define you. Trust me when I say you’re a good person, Keith. I haven’t lied to you before, I’m not going to start now."  
  
\-----  
  
Only a week passed, and between missions and training, Shiro was starting to find sleeping even harder to do. Keith must have noticed, because when they ended up walking to the mess hall together after training one day, Keith muttered to him.  
"You can depend on me once in a while."  
Shiro looked at him, blinking a couple times, wondering if he’d imagined it. Then Keith met his gaze with solid and determined eyes.  
"I... can pull it together, when you need me to. I don’t want to be leader, but I am your right hand so…  If you’re having trouble, you can tell me. I’ll help."  
Shiro felt a surge of affection for the boy, warm and familial. He’d always known Keith was a good kid, from the moment he met him at the Garrison- and the fondness grew to something like brotherhood.  
“Thanks, Keith.”  
But in the end, Keith was still a kid, and the last thing Shiro wanted right now was to weigh Keith down with this.  
“I’ll keep that in mind.”  
\------

Much later, and Shiro was gone. Just after it seemed they’d won, and Keith felt like he’d have rather lost the battle. Even after Shiro came back, the weight on Keiths shoulders felt like it would break him at any moment.  


Because it had crossed Keith's mind, the irony of Voltron now being led by a half-Galra. But it didn't hit him fully until Coran finally told them about Voltrons past. The implications made him sick.  
The black lion had tested Shiro, had forced their leader to fight for his place tooth and nail against someone who wasn't even worthy. Then when Shiro left, it had taken to Keith. He wasn't a better leader- not compared to Allura. He hadn't earned it. The black lion just preferred...  
Galra.  
  
He didn't talk about it to anyone else, couldn't afford to since he was stuck being the leader now. Even Lance, who had turned from rival to Keiths literal right-hand man— his friend-- wasn't someone he felt safe confiding in. He was half Galra, and the team only just managed to forget that. To bring it back up would be re-opening a can of worms.  
He didn't want them all to doubt him, or resent him for being chosen by the Black Lion. It was hard enough dealing with how he felt all that about himself.  
  
The theory was proven by Shiro.  
Why else would their experienced, capable leader, be ignored in favor of some socially awkward teenager with a bad temper.  
Only by blood.  
\--------  
  
When the Black Lion had stood there, not responding to Shiros attempts to board her, he'd been hurt and relieved in equal measures. Not being Voltrons head meant he wasn't responsible for training, for fighting, for anything but strategy. It meant he was far away from the action- from sound and feel of battle.  
It meant if his rigid routine was failing him, and he woke up every hour during his sleeping time, it didn't effect the team as much.  
 It only effected any of the team at all after the second week he was back.  
  
Flashes of light, pain, broken limbs being sawed off and replaced by burning metal that was so wrongwrongwrong- and his eyes hurt oh god they hurt so so much- down to the bone, down to his blood, something was wrong and every direction he looked made him feel like a traitor-  
  
Shiro snapped awake, sheets soaked in sweat and his pillow ripped to shreds by the glowing metal arm that he still had trouble calling his own. He tongued at his mouth, realizing it felt dry and his throat felt sore. Had he been screaming again?  
Probably. That seemed a trend. Wake up screaming a minimum of three times a night.  
It had gotten worse since the second time he'd been captured.  
Shiro deactivated his metal arm and put both hands on his face, dragging them down and pulling at the bottom of his eyes. They didn't hurt now, but the phantom memory of it was there. Why had his eyes hurt so much? The reason was there, on the edge of his memory, but he couldn't grasp it.  
Instead he started sorting out his plans in his head. Water, bathroom, back to bed. There wasn't much else he -could- do.  
  
He got up, and a wrench was thrown into his plan when he heard a knock at the door.  
"Shiro, are you okay? I thought I heard you yelling..."  
Keiths voice was muffled by the metal of the door, and it managed to hide Shiro’s soft groan even more. He hadn’t meant to bother anyone- hadn’t meant for anyone to know. His teammates were children, they shouldn’t have to know or deal with knowing that the only adult in the room couldn’t deal with what the enemy had put him through, he needed to put on a brave face.  
So he put one on and opened the door.  
“Hey Keith.”  
Shiro smiled, a contrast to Keiths deep frown.  
“It was just a nightmare. I’m okay now.”  
Keiths frown didn’t disappear, and he kept standing, rigid straight in Shiros doorway for a full awkward minute before Shiro broke the silence.  
"Keith, you're the leader of Voltron now, you have more important things to worry about than my problems. I’m fine, really."  
Keith balled his hands into fists and shook his head, not backing down- something Shiro couldn’t really remember Keith doing to him before.  
"If I'm leader now, then one of my teammates screaming in the middle of the night -is- my thing to worry about."  
Shiro said nothing, feeling a touch of doubt in his mind and the swell of pressure in his chest coming up to choke at his throat.  
Keith looked at him, and he seemed to catch the signs in Shiro’s eyes, was able to tell something was wrong when no one else could. But then, they’d been friends for a long time, and Keith had grown up, hadn’t he?  
"Remember what I said that one time? I told you you can lean on me when you need to... please, Shiro."  
Keith took a step forward, getting his foot in the door so Shiro couldn’t close it, so he couldn’t soothe his kith and then block him out.  
" I'm... not a good leader. You’re better at it, even if the black lion… thinks it wants me... But how can I ask you for advice or help if I'm worried about you?"  
Shiro’s eyes widened, because that was an angle Keith had never taken before- had never been able to take when he’d been Shiro’s right hand.  
"... it's..."  
Yes, Keith had grown up. He wasn’t the kid brother anymore, the one Shiro had aspirations for. Because he wasn’t a kid. But… even if not by blood, they were still like family.  
And Shiro had needed someone to lean on for a long time.  
"I… Just have nightmares sometimes. Ever since they first took me-”  



End file.
